Biocodicology - A Deeper Dive

[MichelleL11]

The next set of materials in this "deeper dive" is a bit of a smorgasbord of media on this topic.

First, I'd like to direct everyone's attention to the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. project which has a stated goal "to document the biological and craft records in parchment in order to reveal the entangled histories of improvement and parchment production in Europe from 500-1900 AD."  It obviously includes a bunch of people whose research has been reviewed in this string and work that comes out of this project could be helpful in the ultimate completing of the biocodicological analysis of the VM.  I don't know how long the funding for this project is going to exist, but it is nice to see a cross-functional group working on these issues.

Next is a podcast episode in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., specifically You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., entitled Biocodicology: From Dust to Data (December 2021).  The two guests are authors of papers we have reviewed or know about, Sarah Fiddyment (see, multiple reviewed papers) and Timothy Stinson (the author of the 2009 paper that started the board's look into biocodicology), and it is interesting to hear them provide general overviews and discuss specific details that don't necessarily get into the publications.

While you're at Coding Codices, you can also listen to board member Lisa Fagan Davis' interview in their You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. -- although I've obviously read Lisa's You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. concerning the differentiation of the various scribes in the VM a number of times [it's not strictly biocodicology but really interesting], I enjoyed listening to stories from work involved in collecting data and putting together that publication so I'm going to recommend it here.

Finally, if you have an additional 30 minutes to spend on this topic, here is a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. to a short talk by Sarah Fiddyment.  

Each of these presentations is not to the depth that our paper reviews have done, but I do think it makes sense to look at overview materials to help solidify understanding and also get to know a bit better some of the researchers that are involved in this work.  If any questions come up after look at these presentations -- feel free to ask.

I'll be back when I can with a few more summaries of very recent papers to wrap up the board's "deeper dive" into biocodicology.